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VA Mistakenly Tells Vets They Have Fatal Illness
An anonymous reader writes "Thanks to a computer glitch and bad diagnosis coding, the VA sent a letter to thousands of veterans telling them they have Lou Gehrig's Disease. Some were right, but many were mistakes. From the article, 'Recently, the VA determined ALS to be a service-connected disability and generated automatic letters to all veterans whose records included the code for the disease. However, since the coding contained both ALS and undiagnosed neurological disorders, some of those letters were erroneous.'"
ALS is basically a slow and unpleasant death sentence unless you are lucky and can afford proper care. You really don't want to be told you have something that will lock your working brain into your body until you suffocate without a breathing apparatus.
I'm perfectly aware many people can live for ages with ALS, but a significant portion aren't as lucky...
.: Max Romantschuk
Yeah, but these aren't random letters. These are letters from the government. The VA is basically the government health care system for veterans.
If they sent me a letter, I'd think I'd take it seriously.
If I got a random letter saying I had a fatal neurological condition, I'd be slightly sceptical. Maybe that's just me though.
Except these patients already had "undiagnosed neurological conditions". If you had neurological problems, were seeking a diagnosis, had been evaluated inconclusively before, and received a notice from your hospital that you have ALS, you might be less skeptical and more devastated.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
The way the VA medical system works they'd probably die waiting to find out they were dying. The automated letter system is probably to save costs and time - that they completely hosed it up is no surprise.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
It'll be awesome when all of our health care is, by law, just as efficient and personal.
People who serve in the military are twice as likely to get ALS as people with no military service. I don't think anyone knows why but apparently the government is agreeing that they should help out vets who contract it. ALSA has a pdf with information about it - ALSA military paper.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
health insurance policies refused
If you're getting a letter from the VA you already have free liftetime health insurance, and in the US it's illegal to decline someone a job on account of their medical condition, insofar as it doesn't interfere with performance, which for someone who doesn't have a disease, it won't.
I'm sure there's some sort of latent point in this about "socialized medicine" or something, but for every one of these letters with the wrong diagnosis, I assure you a private insurer has cancelled the policy on dozens of people for no goddamn reason. And those people sometimes commit suicide too.
There are many scary anecdotes about the VA, but they're just that, anecdotes. Customer satisfaction within the VA health system regularly outscores customer satisfaction in the private health insurance/care system.
PS. If you get a letter saying you have an incurable disease, damn the letter. You must hear it from your doctor's own lips, and then only after you have had the outcome of the tests throughly explained to you.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
This is good info. but just to point out one thing- not everyone who is in the VA system necessarily has free lifetime care for everything. Many people receive care for lower levels of service connected disability. Many veterans use the VA and other health care systems - including public hospitals, private insurance, etc.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
There I was, looking for a story about veterinarians in Virginia...
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
More importantly, your point about it being free couldn't be more mistaken. For the vets it either cost becoming disabled or a minimum of 20 years of full time service.
This is incorrect. My father spent 4 years in, and due to his income, receives (nearly) free health care. He must requalify every year, fwiw.
-- Nate
Government should just mail an official looking letter to everybody:
Dear XY,
You are not suffering from any fatal neurological conditions.
Regards.
This would vastly increase the accuracy of the mailing and would also be better for the general mood.
What I do for a living: Build a GPS mobile game
There are presently 3 "single payer" health care systems in the US: The VA, IHS (Indian Health Services), and Medicare.
The VA has a long history of misdiagnosis and hospitals that don't meet the cleanliness standards most McDonalds must keep, the IHS itself admits that it doesn't have the money to do anything put extremely urgent care, barely (as opposed to the full and complete care it is obligated to provide by treaty), and Medicare pays regular health care providers about 65% of the costs of treatment, does so 9-24 months late, and is on schedule to devour the entire federal budget by 2019 (assuming it is not expanded by ObamaCare).
As a Military Servicemember, and the son of a vet who just became eligible for medicare, I want LESS government in Healthcare, and am not surprised in the least by these letters. I'm actually more surprised that they were reported in the media, this time.
"Vet" means a veterinary doctor, not a veteran. Stupid title.
Slashdot is an American website, and as such, Vet most certainly does mean Veteran sometimes. When? When it does.
If you don't like the Americanisms, fine. But don't try to correct us. You can't even fucking spell Aluminum. "for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound." That's right, you convinced the whole world to ignore the original name in favor of creative license! The English language is poisoned with the deliberate, poetickal misspellings of Chaucer and his contemporaries because when the dictionaries were Laid Down From On High by some pompous brits, the works were in fashion, and so every dictionary I open I have to see a bunch of made-up shit.
Complaining about American English on an American website is stupid, and you are a stupid person for doing it. Go suck a calamansis lime.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Point. In my experience, though, generally they like to give out "you're going to die" type news in person. Hell, even the results of a standard blood test require you to go in and pay the standard consultation tax.
They don't make money when they see you at some broken-down VA medical center. My dad is a veteran with an arterial blockage. They won't give him the medication for some reason, and they won't operate because "it's not bad enough". They will do anything they can do NOT provide you any care at the VA; sending you a letter informing you that you probably have less than a year to live is just a cost-cutting measure.
The VA is just a more societally acceptable alternative to shooting veterans dead on the white house lawn, it has nothing to do with helping people unless that's the cheapest way to get them out of your hair. The members of the military that they actually care about (commissioned officers) can afford real medical care. If they just built one less bomber and a few less cruise missiles they could afford to ramp up the care to be some of the world's best, as our veterans deserve (at least as much as anyone else!)
If we're really the greatest nation on the planet, we should have the best medical care. To provide especially sub-standard health care to veterans (as we very much do) is a MASSIVE FAILURE to be great. It is, in fact, incredibly small and petty.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
this and a private medical company?
You find out about the error when a government agency does it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
As a family caretaker of a U.S. Veteran (Vietnam and Iraq Round 1) who passed away from ALS, while under the care of the VA - I have to say that they really busted their butts to make sure he had all the assistance and medical care possible. They even called intermittently with questions about his service history to attempt to find out WHY so many people in his situation developed ALS.
I have to say, for all the problems people have had with the VA they took care of Jim. He had everything from his medications to a IPAP, oxygen, even a hospital bed delivered and set up here at the house.
Given the extremely bizarre nature of the disease, and that no-one clearly understands its causes, they did a damn fine job of trying to figure out what was wrong and making sure he had ample medical care.
meh